Sony: MS policies are "protecting an inferior technology"

Microsoft’s policies that are designed to protect the Xbox 360 platform are to the detriment of the wider industry and the consumer, Sony has claimed.

The attack comes after it was revealed that Microsoft has a number of strict policies in place for potential publishers, including an unwillingness to publish games on Xbox Live that have previously been PS3 exclusives.

“In the spirit of competition, more than anything, we look for ways to give our consumer reason to have the PS3,” SCEA’s senior VP of publisher relations Rob Dyer told IndustryGamers.

“I think what [Xbox European boss] Chris Lewis and the other representatives at Microsoft are doing is protecting an inferior technology.

“And that’s a huge problem with them. It first started on the smaller pubs, and we can talk about what’s happened on XBL and the policy they have there that requires publishers to have a whole litany of things in order to get onto their network or they have to go through and be published by Xbox, by Microsoft, which essentially lets them dictate how long they’ll be exclusive and whether or not they own the IP, etc.

“They - for instance, if you want to be able to do something on XBL, you need to have an office, there’s all kinds of restrictions. We don’t do that. We don’t have any kind of policy like that. We’re not pushing that.”

Dyer also claims that it’s a problem that has grown over the course of the platform.

"Here’s the thing... It's now progressed to not just be these smaller indie pubs that are obviously very easy to kick around. It’s moved up the food chain,” he added.

"So from a creativity standpoint and what we are doing to try to make it better for the consumer, our view is Microsoft’s doing everything they can to eliminate that because they have an inferior technology.

"I just wanted to make it clear from Chris Lewis’ comment last week and the fact that he’s saying, 'Well, this is great for consumers,' and that they’re going to protect their consumers. I think that that is an admirable stance to take. That being said, while they might be protecting their consumers, what are they protecting them from? And what it looks like they’re protecting them from is the ability to see great content show up on a superior technology.

“And that, to me, is the problem we’re having right now is these threats and these serious issues that Microsoft is throwing at publishers - it’s only going to dumb down what could potentially come out for a number of these games. And whether people are willing to stand up to Microsoft on this stuff or not is up to that publisher and they do it at their own risk.”

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